Category Archives: The Craft of Writing

C.L. Stone: Write a million words. Your first million is practice. Hugh Howey‘s response: This is so difficult to appreciate and even harder to do. Writing a novel is such a brutal undertaking, something we dream about but put off … Continue reading →

“If you set your bar at ‘amazing’ it’s awfully difficult to start. Your first paragraph, sketch, formula, sample or concept isn’t going to be amazing. Your tenth one might not be either. Confronted with the gap between your vision of … Continue reading →

I really enjoy Hugh Howey’s books, and above and beyond being a great fiction writer, he’s also a damn good chronicler of the self-publishing adventure. He had a post earlier today that I thought was great. One bit: http://www.hughhowey.com/what-do-self-published-authors-need I’d … Continue reading →

Apparently large numbers of professional novelists turn out three to four books per year. Here’s an example: Hugh Howey talking about a book he hasn’t started yet http://www.hughhowey.com/dust-august-17th/ In case any of you enterprising and impatient cats are searching Amazon … Continue reading →

So apparently all the cool writer kids are tagging each other with the “the next big thing” meme. I’m an introvert with out any writing friends (well, except my girlfriend fiance…and she’s in a symmetric situation), so I’ll tag myself. … Continue reading →

SF author Rahul Kanakia writes http://blotter-paper.com/2013/04/19/thinking-about-moving-away-from-writing-novel-length-adult-science-fiction-and-fantasy …more and more like the idea of being a YA [ science fiction ] writer. The field feels a bit more active (although these things can change pretty quickly). But it also feels a … Continue reading →

Looks like folks disagree with my thoughts on how many revisions are necessary: http://accordingtohoyt.com/2013/04/02/3934/#comment-67095 TJIC: …I’m on my fourth draft… kilteDave: Fourth draft? Out of curiosity, have you had anyone else read through your manuscript? TJIC: Yes, I’ve had several … Continue reading →

Writing friend Diana Day told me that one of the important – but latent – threads in my novel was the romance thread between Mike and Darcy. She asked some questions. I generated some answers. Pace John Cleese on creativity, … Continue reading →